Page 31 of Tito
I took another bite and had the same sensation. Never, had I ever tasted anything so perfect, so decadent. So good.
After dipping her spoon, my twin released the same moan as I had.
“I’m not sure we should have given them Zia’s Cioccolato,” Romeo spoke up in a subdued voice.
“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” Tito agreed in a wobbly voice.
We both took another spoonful in and moaned together again.
Tito tried to take the dish.
I slapped at his hand and growled, “Hunh-uh!”
“Don’t even think about it,” Julianna growled at Romeo.
Both men laughed.
“We best be careful. They mean it!” Romeo warned as he raised his hands up in surrender.
“Dangerous women,” Tito joked as he nodded his head in agreement.
This euphoria for me and my twin and chuckles from the guys went on until I came to the bottom of the small glass dish. I licked my spoon a second time. All gone. Looking up at Julianna, I told her. “She needs to set up shop and make a zillion dollars!”
“Right?” my twin agreed. “I was hooked from the minute I first tried it and I count the days till she serves it again.”
“Oh, yeah?” I was super curious and a bit greedy too as I never noticed it being served. Then again, I’d spent weeks in a sort of a fog. “How often does she serve it?”
“Every Sunday,” Tito replied. “Been that way since...” He shrugged and shook his head. “For as long as I can remember.”
“She serves it in honor of your father,” Stephano told us from across the table.
“Yeah…” Tito nodded.
Stephano smiled at him. “He told me once that life just wouldn’t be worth living without Maria’s Cioccolato. In fact, the only time I ever saw Max smile was after he tasted her Cioccolato.”
Tito stared at him. “Really? Damn, I’ve never seen him smile. The whole time I was growing up.”
“Me either,” Romeo said. “We have tried everything to get any kind of reaction out of him.”
I looked around at them. They were right. The butler never seemed to show any emotion, but I just assumed that was an act. Like the formal ‘English Butler’ thing.
“How did you…” Julianna paused, then she started again, “Where did you get Max?” she asked Stephano.
Stephano shook his head. “I didn’t. My father sent him to me from Sicily, from the old country. He arrived the day after I married my Bella. Max simply came in, gave me that formal bow of his and said, ‘I am here to serve.’ I mean we had a housekeeper, a gardener and a maintenance man. But at the time I thought a butler was like too much. I wasn’t what they call a Wiseguy or a made man at that time. I hadn’t even made my first million yet.” He smirked. “We lived on the other side of New Orleans, not here. Then Bella told me she felt the same way. Like an English butler? It seemed to be like putting on airs, she said. I agreed. But nothing we told him made him go away.”
“So, he’s in it for life?” I asked him.
“At this point, I am thinking so.” Stephano nodded. “I did my research on it one time and it seems that in the old days, they did serve a family, generation after generation.”
“But he doesn’t have any kids so how will that work?” Romeo asked.
“What I wanna know,” Tito spoke up now. “Is why he never ages.”
“Yeah!” Romeo agreed. “I never thought about it too much when I was a kid, but do we even know how old he is?”
“I have no idea.” Stephano took a sip of his wine then set his glass down. “I do not think it would be polite to ask. The man is very private.”
“You should know about that subject,” Romeo teased his father.
